Mammoth — worth the journey?

Just off 2+ days on the mountain at Mammoth, and is there a better mountain in California? Yes, I know it can be crowded, especially on the weekends, and yes, you do have to deal with all those Southern Californians, but for my money it’s worth it. And worth the the 5+hour drive.

Since this was the first week of January, most of the Christmas crowds had gone home. Lifts were never crowded — and even if they had been — and I’ve been to Mammoth plenty of times over Christmas vacation when it is jammed — those high-speed quads the way they’re arranged to cover the mountains, means that things really move along. And over 2+ days, we never were on a lift tht stopped or even slowed down. Plus, four good base areas, and a new gondola down to the town’s central village area, means the crowds are pretty well dispersed.

It’s been dry for over a week, but coverage was still good, although if you ski the steep chutes and double diamonds like Paranoid Flats you might not agree. But for all those blue and blue-black highly groomed cruisers, it was awesome.

As Slope Dope’s Al Saracevic wrote earlier this season, Horizon Air has just started flights to Mammoth, which should make it more of a Bay Area ski destination. But then you’d miss the drive down stunning Hwy. 395 past Mono Lake.

So what do you think, those of you who have been — Mammoth worth it or not?